Come, Let Us
by Gaelcelt
Summary: Steve/Bucky slash. Songfiction. After the Winter Soldier, Bucky returns to Steve, remembering what they had, what he has suffered, and seeks answers and comfort.


These characters are not mine.

Steve/Bucky slash. Songfiction. After the Winter Soldier, Bucky returns to Steve, remembering what they had, what he has suffered, and seeks answers and comfort.

Inspired by the heartbreaking film _Yossi & Jagger_, an Israeli film about two soldiers, Yossi and Lior (called "Jagger" for his rock-star good looks), whose romance is tested when they are stationed at the Lebanese border for causes that they don't particularly support. Sadly, it ends with the death of one of the pair. Lior's favorite song, "Bo" ("Come") by Rita (and covered by Ivri Lider), brings me to the verge of tears, as does the movie.

Come, Let Us

Steve's face went pale as he opened his door. His tongue was paralyzed. While the man before him was scruffy and looked homeless, but he was Bucky again. Despite his careworn, dilapidated state, Bucky was the most beautiful sight that Steve had ever seen.  
>Gulping, Steve's heart was in his throat as he tried to speak. "Bucky…?"<br>Although the other man winced, Steve's strangled tone had reached him. "You were telling the truth…! Steve, I don't know what I should say…!"  
>Taking his heart in his hands, Steve gestured for Bucky to come inside. "Bucky, you're safe with me-!" Steve urged.<br>Hesitating, Bucky silently crossed the threshold, "Where do we go from here, Steve…?" he murmured as Steve gently shut the door and tenderly guided bucky to a chair.  
>"I don't know, Soldier…!" Steve stroked Bucky's flesh arm anxiously, "How much of our life together do you remember?"<br>A shuddering breath, Bucky's voice sounded fragile from everything that had happened since the SHIELD carriers crashed.  
>"It's hazy, but everything is coming back to me…! I remember how we lived together before the War, the street fights that I saved you from… I remember that I loved you…<em>love<em> you… like I've never loved anybody…!"  
>Steve hopefully squeezed Bucky's hand, "I've never stopped loving you, Bucky…! And I understand if you don't want to continue where we left off, if it's too much for you to handle…!"<br>Bucky leaned in to kiss a stray tear from Steve's cheek.

The caress, however slight, was the drop that spilled the vase. Both men fell into each other's arms, tripping all over each other's apologies and shared pain.

"I'm so sorry that I didn't try to find you, Soldier…!" Steve's squeaked into Bucky's neck, "I should never have thought that it would have killed you…! I could have spared you from so much…!"  
>Bucky clung to Steve as desperately as Steve was holding him, "How could you have known, Babe…? And I… I'm a murderer! I killed people that I didn't even know-! How could I do this…?!"<br>"That wasn't you, Buck. That was HYDRA controlling you. You would never have done that willingly…!"  
>"I know…" Bucky's face twisted in anguish, his voice brittle, "But I still… how can I ever tell you what I've done-?!"<br>The reunited lovers sobbed for joy that they were together again, clutching each other as the accumulation of their pain fought to escape from them.  
>"HYDRA used you, Soldier. You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to, but if it helps you to talk about it then I'm here. You don't have to go this alone…!" Steve whimpered as he kissed Bucky.<p>

"Bucky…? Soldier, you're shivering-!" Steve realized as he sensed Bucky shaking uncontrollably.  
>"It's-it's nothing-!" Bucky protested, but Steve had already grabbed a blanket from the sofa and hastily wrapped it around his tormented love, returning them to their embrace.<br>With the warmth of the blanket and his lover wrapped around him, Bucky found himself truly warm for the first time in decades as he nestled into Steve's chest.  
>"I'm here, Soldier, and neither of us is going anywhere," Steve whispered into Bucky's mussed chestnut locks, "I mean it when I say that I'm with you to the end of the line."<br>Bucky relaxed as he felt Steve's hands running over his back, the warmth of his chest against his cheek. For the first time in so long, the horrors that plagued his memory were overpowered by the love that he and Steve thought was lost to them.

HYDRA agents ransacked Steve's apartment, trying to find Captain America and the Winter Soldier, terrifying the neighbors in the process. But Steve and Bucky had already fled to the sanctuary of Stark Tower; they knew that it would only be a matter of time before HYDRA tried to regroup and recapture them.

The rest of the Avengers were initially skeptical about sheltering the former Winter Soldier, but they soon recognized just how shaken that Bucky was. Sam recognized the symptoms of PTSD, a dignosis that did not surprise Steve or Bucky in the least.  
>"You really have been through hell-!" Bruce remarked as the group became acquainted with Sergeant Barnes.<br>"Tell me about it…!" Bucky said flatly.  
>"Don't worry, though," Pepper reassured them, "You're safe, here… until Tony gets another of his ideas."<br>"Hey-!" Tony protested, "I'll have you know that I'm outraged-!"  
>"Don't mind Tony," Natasha squeezed Bucky's shoulder, "He's just Tony-!"<br>Bucky chuckled slightly, "I think that I might like Stark."  
>Steve couldn't help but smile; anything that made Bucky happy was worth it.<p>

Steve and Bucky collapsed on their bed, exhausted but enthralled. It had been the first time after seven decades apart that they had made love.  
>"Babe, are you all right?" Bucky asked anxiously as he saw Steve looking so spent.<br>Steve turned his head to meet Bucky's gaze. Tears seeped from his eyes as he smiled, "You're here," Steve's voice was tired as he took Bucky's metallic hand and squeezed it, "I still can't quite believe it… I love you, Soldier…!"  
>Bucky suddenly wore an identical expression, "hold me, Babe…!"<br>Steve eagerly obliged his love's request, cradling Bucky's head on his chest, "I can't begin to say how much I've missed this…missed you…!"  
>"Everything is still so confusing, but I have you, Babe. You've fought for me, you've protected me…!"<br>"You did the same for me when we were kids, Soldier," Steve murmured, "I owe you big time…!"  
>Bucky sniggered before returning to listening to Steve's heart pounding, "I wouldn't have this any other way, Babe…!" he smirked, "And the super-serum sure helps!"<br>Steve chuckled, bouncing Bucky who quickly joined the laughter, "You realize that we've done it a total of seven times tonight, Soldier-!"  
>"And we have earned it, Stevie!" Bucky smooched him eagerly.<br>"We sure have!" Steve remarked as they nuzzled each other, the first fingers of the late autumn sunrise sliding across them, "For everything that we've gone through, this is worth the trouble…!"

Bucky shivered as he stood at the window, gazing at the early morning. Serum or none, his body still remembered the chill of the snow and the brutality of his training at HYDRA, and the cold and snow of the early mornings as the winter approached reminded him of those days. His reflection in the window, the glint of his metal arm sent shivers through him as he saw himself as he had been less than a year before.  
>He was slightly startled when he felt Steve's chest against his back, the tension draining from his shoulders as Steve slid his arms around him.<br>"You're safe, Soldier. I'm here…!"  
>"Stevie…!" Bucky caressed Steve's forearms.<br>"Come on back to bed, sweetheart. I'll keep you warm."

-

Steve marveled at the amount of snow that the city had gotten before winter had even begun. Thor seemed to thrive in it as he and Jane built another sculpture, only to abandon it as Tony put two cornucopias on the head of their previous creation.

"Do you mock my brother, Doctor Stark?" Thor grumbled and Jane tried not to laugh.  
>"Hey, it's nothing against Loki, he just shouldn't be burdened with glorious purpose all the time-!" Tony protested before he had to dodge a mass of snow that Thor hurled at him.<p>

"Serves Tony right," Sam remarked to Steve and Natasha, "I might have known that he'd get nailed one day."  
>Steve nodded and Natasha was about to say something when a barrage of snowballs pelted them.<br>"That's for saying that Tony deserved it!" Bucky called with mock-indignation.  
>"Hey, whose side are you on?!" Steve was answered in the form of a snowball to the face.<br>"I can have more than one friend, you know," Bucky retorted before Steve began chasing him, egged on by Natasha and Sam.  
>Bucky hit Steve with yet more snow balls before the blond could catch him, which Steve eagerly returned, both of them shaking with laughter as they chucked snow at each other.<br>As Steve scooped up more snow, Bucky tackled him, both of them tumbling into the snow with Steve on his back.  
>"So the Winter Soldier has conquered Captain America," Natasha teased as she and Sam caught up with the pair.<br>"Yes-!" Bucky grinned widely, pinning Steve's hands with his own, "And _you_, Captain, you shall submit to my every whim as the spoils of my victory!"  
>Steve shook with laughter, giving his best impersonation of a damsel in distress, "Oh no, oh you're so big and strong and mean, oh I feel so vulnerable and helpless-! Oh help, help-! Somebody save me-!"<br>Bucky joined the laughter as they kissed, wrapping around each other as they rolled around in the snow.  
>"I'm pretty sure that you can't get away with that kind of affection in public," Sam smirked as he watched the smooching couple, "Get a room, you two-!" before Bucky threw a fistful of snow at him, "Hey-!"<p>

Steve retaliated with a snowball in Bucky's face. "For that," Bucky resumed his mock-imperious tone, "You must dance for me! I am your master!"  
>Steve rolled them over so that Bucky was on his back, "Now I have conquered you, Winter Soldier, and it is <em>you<em> who must dance!"  
>Steve rolled off of Bucky, giggling as Bucky started lobbing snow at him. He danced around, wiggling his backside at Bucky as Bucky launched more snowballs and then tackled Steve, both of them laughing as they rolled onto their sides, gazing into each other's eyes.<br>"I'm so glad that you're so happy, Soldier-!" Steve beamed at Bucky as he caressed his cheek, brushing a lock of chestnut hair over his ear, "You're so beautiful-!"  
>"I haven't felt so good in ages…!" Bucky sighed fondly, "How can I ever say "thank you" for everything that you've done for me, Babe?"<br>"You're home. You're with me again… how could I ever ask for anything more than that, Bucky?"  
>They embraced as they closed the gap between their faces with a tender kiss.<p>


End file.
